Hospitals discover it isn’t easy being green

Hospitals adopting environmental measures find they must perform a juggling act of sorts. They must manage three often-opposing forces: the desire to be eco-friendly, the need to protect patients and the imperative to control costs.

“We have to make sure we’re going to kill germs,” said Gerry Varela, vice president of environmental services and linen services for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. “Sometimes you’re not able to do it in an environmentally friendly way.”

North Shore-LIJ, for instance, uses bleach, which doesn’t break down easily in water and isn’t easy to dispose of, to clean and kill Clostridium Difficile, a dangerous germ.

“The only thing out there right now that infection control tells us kills CD is bleach,” Varela said. “Bleach is not a green product.”

But the 14-hospital system is at least looking at the environmental impact of its purchasing. And that’s a relatively new thing for hospitals.

North Shore-LIJ two years ago formed an environmental services value-analysis team, which Varela chairs, to standardize the best and greenest cleaning solutions.

“We realized as a system we have to be good stewards of the environment,” Varela said. “We were looking at ways not only to become green, but [to do it] in an efficient manner.”

Varela said the health care industry initially worried going green would be expensive, although it often isn’t.

“Some of the green products may cost more. But by retraining and using more efficient techniques, you use less of it,” he said. “Education is a big piece of going green.”

North Shore-LIJ now uses products with various environmental seals, such as Crew, a bathroom cleaner that achieved Green Guard and Green Seal certification. It also uses Glance, a window cleaner without ammonia, also with green seals.

And the system has begun using microfiber mops with removable mop heads replaced after each use. They are not only more sanitary, but more efficient, since they inject fluids directly into the mop head, rather than dipping into solutions.

“The microfiber mop system allows us to minimize cross contamination,” Varela said. “And you don’t have to dip in the bucket when you’re laying down floor finish or sealer.”

Hospitals aren’t just focusing on green products, but on green or biodegradable packaging. “We’re trying to make sure the vendors we partner with send us the product in an environmentally friendly way,” Varela said.

But in some cases, saving on packaging could cost lives. Multidose vials, which contain fluid medication to administer to several patients, require less packaging than individually wrapped doses. Hospitals are shying away from these.

“One of the issues with a multidose vial is you could contaminate it and use it on another patient,” said Dr. Aaron Glatt, chief executive of New Island Hospital in Bethpage. “Every time you introduce a needle, there’s a potential risk of contamination.”

In a more than 200-page report about infection in 2008, the Centers for Disease Control said the “use of single-dose vials is preferred over multiple-dose vials, especially when medications will be administered to multiple patients.”

Glatt said “the idea behind trying to minimize this situation is reasonable,” even if it increases cost.

But hospitals are reducing or improving packaging in other ways. North Shore-LIJ used to buy floor finishes in 5-gallon, nonbiodegradable plastic buckets. Product is now delivered in biodegradable plastic containers.

And the system buys concentrated cleaning solutions mixed through an automated dispensing system rather than in individual containers. “When you buy the concentrated solution, you’ll get more gallons of solution per bottle,” Varela said.

Meanwhile, Varela is looking for new ways to clean green. He’s following the progress of a peroxide-based product called Oxivir that may kill Clostridium Difficile as well as bleach.

One comment

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About the Author

Claude Solnik covers healthcare, finance, and technology/energy for Long Island Business News.